The Reformed Pastor and Modern Thought
Overview
Cornelius Van Til presents this volume to pastors, hoping to encourage them as they instruct young people who are influenced by modern schools of thought. It is important for a pastor to be acquainted with schools of modern thought, including science, philosophy, and religion, and all the while maintain their foundation on the ways of Christianity, which provides them the tool of critical analysis and comparison.
Top Highlights
“The philosophy of Aristotle, like the philosophy of any of those not ‘taught by Christ,’ offers no concepts that are essentially sound. All the concepts of such a philosophy are based upon the assumption that God and the cosmos are aspects of one reality subject to the same laws. The god of Aristotle as well as the god of Plato, in fact, the god of any non-Christian philosopher, is a god constructed by the rebellious mind of man in the interest of suppressing the truth.” (Page 20)
“Therefore true knowledge of creation demands a true knowledge of the Creator.” (Page 5)
“Calvin’s point concerning the absolute necessity of Scripture also sets off his position from that of Aquinas. Since man’s ignorance of God is blameworthy, this ignorance can be removed by nothing else than the redeeming work of Christ. Only Scripture as the word of Christ reports God’s work of redemption in Christ. Only through the mirror of Scripture, therefore, can general revelation be seen for what it is.” (Page 9)
“Romans, every man knows God. No one can help but know God. Self-consciousness immediately involves God-consciousness. According to the second point, no one knows God except through Scripture. No one even knows any fact of nature for what it is, as created, directed, and controlled by God, except through Scripture. No one knows how to combine ‘logic’ and ‘fact’ aright in the universe except through revelation.” (Page 8)
“Accordingly, man is thought of as having an inherent weakness—a bias towards sin. Man, as created, lives on the verge of non-being. On an Aristotelian basis, non-being is evil. Thus the biblical idea of sin, as exclusively ethical in its import, is confused, to some extent, with the idea of sin as inherent in man because of his finitude.” (Page 25)